[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 10304-10305]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              DEBT CEILING

  Mr. REID. In one of his poems, T.S. Eliot wrote, ``Hurry up please. 
It's time.'' He could have been writing about us in the U.S. Senate.
  Yesterday, this great Nation celebrated its 235th birthday. In those 
235 years, we have accomplished many admirable things, and we have done 
it together. We have landed on the Moon, invented new ways to save 
lives, and fought for democracy and freedom all around the world. Now 
we stand poised to make a different kind of history.
  For the first time, the United States of America stands at the brink 
of defaulting on our financial obligations. The Chief Economist for the 
U.S. Chamber of Commerce said allowing America to default on the debt 
``would be tantamount to writing a bad check.''
  Unless we take action, tarnishing this great Nation's sterling 
reputation will be the least of our concerns. We also risk the very 
fate of this country's economy and the world's economy along with it. 
The last time this country was plunged into a major recession, just 3 
short years ago, we took the world with us.
  When Wall Street greed caused the financial collapse of our financial 
system, Americans across the country lost their jobs, their homes, and 
their savings, and so did people across the globe. This country is only 
beginning to recover and the world with us. But the crisis we now face 
is one of even greater proportion without exception. The most respected 
business economists and business minds of our time have said if America 
defaults on its debt, it will have dire consequences here and around 
the world. ``Catastrophe,'' they called it.
  That same U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist said a failure to avert 
this crisis ``is not a possibility.'' He could not even conceive the 
Republicans in Congress could shirk their duty. Defaulting on our debt 
would risk millions of American jobs, halt tax refunds, Social Security 
checks, Medicare payments, and even paychecks for our troops. The 
depression it would cause at home would ripple around the globe. Some 
have suggested instead of getting Social Security checks, Social 
Security recipients would get an IOU from the Federal Government.
  This default crisis is not a new problem. It has been around for 
months. But we no longer have months or even weeks to avert this 
catastrophe. We have days. Yet my Republican colleagues have walked 
away from the negotiating table when we were nearing a solution--and so 
close to disaster. Why? To protect oil companies, to protect the owners 
of yachts and corporate jets, to protect corporations that ship jobs 
overseas, to protect millionaires and billionaires from paying their 
fair share.
  Twenty percent of all the income earned in this Nation is earned by 
less than 1 percent of its citizens. It is this top approximately 1 
percent the Republicans are determined to protect. Republicans walked 
away from the negotiations to protect them. Meanwhile, the rich are 
getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and all that the 
middle-class Democrats have worked to make stronger is disappearing. 
Middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet.
  That is why I brought to the floor legislation demanding millionaires 
and billionaires contribute their fair share to this crucial deficit 
reduction struggle. When Republicans talk about shared sacrifice, they 
mean the sacrifice should be shared by those who can least afford it. 
Democrats believe that sacrifice should be shared by the richest 1 
percent as well. The others have all sacrificed too much already.
  As we debate in the Senate this week, negotiations with the Vice 
President and the President should continue. The invitation to 
Republicans to help prevent a catastrophic default remains out there. 
To become part of the solution rather than part of the problem, all 
Republicans have to do is accept our invitation. The time is here for 
my Republican colleagues to put politics aside. Simply put, we are out 
of time. But Democrats cannot negotiate with ourselves. When one side 
comes to the table and the other refuses, it is impossible to 
negotiate. So this week we will debate the solution to this crisis with 
the Republicans, like it or not.
  Democrats will be clear about what is at stake: the fate of our 
country and the global economy. We will be clear about our priority: to 
avert a catastrophic default and protect our fragile economic recovery. 
We will be clear

[[Page 10305]]

about the middle ground we have already found: We must cut the deficit 
in order to get our fiscal house in order.
  Democrats are willing to compromise, but compromise does not mean 
allowing our Republican colleagues to put the wants of a few 
millionaires and billionaires ahead of the needs of the Nation and the 
world.
  I repeat the words of T.S. Eliot: ``Hurry up please. It's time.''

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